How Business Giants Get Lower Interest Rates for Meeting Diversity Quotas

Companies have advertised these agreements as proof of their progressive bona fides. Trimble CEO Rob Painter, for example, said the company s credit facility which conditions interest rates on the percentage of female employees illustrates Trimble s “commitment” to “gender diversity in the workplace.” In press releases announcing their own credit facilities, executives at BlackRock, Prudential, and Definity say the agreements demonstrate their commitment to “accountability.”

But critics see something far more sinister: a form of blatant discrimination that will harm consumers, credit markets, and the rule of law.

“If a bank penalized a company’s credit rating because it had too many women or was too racially diverse, we would be appalled,” said one senior government regulator, who managed a nine-figure credit facility as a lawyer in private practice. “This is the exact same thing, except the penalized target is white men.”

via freebeacon.com

Seems like these agreements ought to be illegal, if they’re not already.